The accessibility of media shared on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube has permanently changed marketing. Michael Stelzner’s report surveyed over 3300 marketers to provide a snapshot of what marketers are up to in business for 2011.

The top question marketers wanted answered was on measurement tools to track ROI

93% of those surveyed used some form of social media in their marketing efforts

90% said it was important to their business (key insight: smaller businesses were more likely to agree)

A significant 58% of marketers are using social media for 6 hours or more each week and 34% for 11 or more hours weekly

72% of marketers who have been using social media for more than 3 years report it had helped them close business

At least 73% of marketers plan on increasing their use of YouTube/video, blogs, Facebook and Twitter

92% of marketers are using Facebook and 75% plan on increasing their activities

Blogs remain a strong area of focus for social media marketers, with 75% indicating they’ll increase their blogging activities

73% of marketers will increase their activities on Twitter. Large businesses are most likely to increase their activities on Twitter, with 77% reporting

Trufflepig Search says that social media is essential for business. Targeted exposure, engaging with customers, and upping search engine rankings are just a few of the critical benefits—adding to what social media does for HR, recruiting, customer service, and PR.

Trufflepig Search Limited is part of a group of engaged social media practitioners in Hong Kong called HK Social. This month, Jay Oatway, “the most followed man on Twitter in Hong Kong” hosted HK Social’s monthly gathering, and shared his thoughts on the future of social networking using Color, a new photo sharing app, as an example.

Color is fascinating. It capitalizes on the urge we all have to see everything that’s around us, not just from our own angle, but from the other side of the room, providing a visual map of our surroundings.

Here’s how it works:

You post a photo or video publicly when you’re logged in, and your content is streamed to everyone else within 100 feet of your location. You don’t choose your network; this app does it for you. As a result, what you have is a series of images from various perspectives, all of the same location you are in yourself.

Jay uses the example of the International World Rugby Sevens, a tremendously popular annual event in Hong Kong which took place last month. While quite a few of us in the stands shared photos and comments via Twitter at this notoriously vibrant sporting event, how much more visual information might we have had if several people were using the Color app?

“It’s hard to pinpoint the best use case for this app because it is so unique in design. You can use it to share photos among a group without having to pass the phone around, or you can use it to keep a visual log of not only your life, but of the lives of those you see the most,” writes Ben Parr for Mashable.

It remains to be seen how well this app does in comparison to the slew of new photo and video sharing apps on the market, but we’re looking forward to discovering its many uses.

Social media for business encompasses more than the average person’s Facebook status update or Tweet about the latest viral video. For companies, social media offers a range of opportunities to connect and engage with their target audience with more targeted ads, direct engagement with potential and current customers, and unique branding opportunities, just to name a few of the possibilities.

At Trufflepig Search, we know it takes much more than a registered company page on Facebook to maximize the potential of social media. How do you increase followers? Are you producing content of value to your customers and clients? How do you handle negative feedback or legal compliance in your industry?

To launch a successful social media campaign, there are critical factors: strategic goals, implementation, and fine-tuning of the tools to reach the target audience:

(1) Strategists plan campaigns and decide for using social media for the company. They determine the budget and feasibility of initial social media use, and decide how the company will choose to improve the campaign most practically and efficiently. Often strategists manage additional aspects, depending on the size of the company and its social media budget.

(2) Implementers and engagers (whose duties are often distributed among marketing, communications, sales, HR, and customer service) get the firm’s social media platforms up and running. This involves the design, content, and engagement that go into creating successful social media pages that communicate the company’s culture and goals. They also manage the personal representation of the organization and become most valuable once a social media interface is established. This role serves as the basis by which the company maintains good communication with its relevant clients, bloggers, or influencers. Implementers typically interact directly with customers so it is essential that they are well-trained in the company policies.

(3) Technologists who manage the marketing technology and tools are essential after the first implementation phase because social media is constantly changing and tools are constantly being created. Social media maximization demands constant re-evaluation to better suit customer needs, enhance the brand, and offer genuine value as a thought leader. Technologists are often developing apps, collecting metrics, and reviewing analytics to judge which tactics are effective and which need revamping.

Read an in-depth analysis of the different roles and skill sets that fall within these categories of social media professions on Quora. Our response is also shared in the discussion.